Sermon preview, week of February 11, 2025
Mountaintop Priority
This Sunday’s order
- Sunday
- Reading
- Matthew 6:19-34
- Series
- Mountaintop Manifesto
- Preaching
- Jonathan Balmer
This is a sermon preview for the fourth week of our “Mountaintop Manifesto” series.
The readingMatthew 6:19-34
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“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." - from Matthew 6:19-34
Read Matthew 6:19-34
19Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.
Berean Standard Bible, public domain
Treasure, money, and anxiety. If we haven't been convicted so far in Jesus's sermon on the mount, if one of us suspects Jesus is not talking about us, most reading along will have to admit there is something in this passage which feels like Jesus is speaking directly to us.
We worry, and feel insecure, about the future. And what is our response? Often to shore up what we need: make more money, have more things, and live more securely. We worry (and sometimes with very good reasons!) about what we will wear or our housing. And Jesus says simply, "Your Heavenly Father needs these things" and "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Jesus wants us to "Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness," rather than worrying about tomorrow. But, Jesus . . . how?
How can we simply let "tomorrow worry about itself"?
It feels, often, impossible. It can already feel difficult when someone tells you to "live in the moment." How much more is it difficult to not worry about the basics, and to seek first the Father's Kingdom and his righteousness and expect everything else will be given to us as well?
We know faith is important. We know we should prioritize God. But we're only human. We don't know the future like God does. What Jesus is doing here is holding up a mirror to our priorities and asking: "Does this look like the Kingdom I've proclaimed to you?"
Join us this Sunday as we see how far from a judgmental speech or a scathing indictment, Jesus's words are actually very good news for us. The friend to sinners meets us here: in our want, and our lack, and our worry, to point us to something greater: a Kingdom Priority.
